What is Inquiry Science

Inquiry-based science instruction is “the creation of a classroom where students are engaged in (essentially) open-ended, student-centered, hands-on activities. This means that students must make at least some decisions about what they are doing and what their work means – thinking along the way” (Colburn2003).

In SFSI classrooms, the teacher can been found moving from group to group to monitor and check understanding as children ask questions, question answers, record data, write observations, ask more questions and work toward their own conclusions.
Within this cooperative learning environment, students are encouraged to investigate ideas, formulate questions, make predictions, apply scientific techniques, compare results, and analyze data as well as demonstrate their understanding by reporting their observations to others.

Inquiry science is constructed with hands-on activities that encourage scientific thought processes, rather than the memorization of facts from textbooks. Inquiry based and hands-on science are proven methods that not only increases students’ skills in science, but also improve critical thinking, literacy and math skills. Students are experience science topics and concepts within meaningful context.

Related Articles:

• Blaine,L. “Science Is Elementary.” CESI Science 34
  (Summer 2001): 17-19
  
  
• Colburn, A. The Lingo of Learning: 88 Educational Terms Every Science Teacher Should Know Arlington, VA: NSTA Press, 2003
  
  
• Exploratorium Institute for Inquiry – www.exploratorium.org
  
  
• Education Development Center (EDC)
  
  
• Jorgenson, O.; What K-8 Principals Should Know About Hands-On Science; Principal-Effective Intervention – Special Section > November/December 2005 > page(s) 49-52
  
  
• Klentschy, M.; Garrison,L.; and Ameral, O. “Valle Imperial Project in Science” (VIPS): “Four-year Comparison of Student Achievement Data 1995-1999,”2001.
  
  
• National Research Council. National Science Education Standards. Washington, D.D.: National Academy Press, 1996
  
  
• National Science Teachers Association. Presentations on the National Science Resource Center and The Einstein Project at annual conference. St. Louis: March 24, 2001
  
  
• National Science Teachers Association. “Laboratory Science,” position statement available online at http://www.nsta.org/159&id=16